Member Avatar for hackneylad

Hi there, I’m currently having a lot of serious problems with my laptop and would appreciate any advice.

The problem started when a blue screen of death appeared while I was away from the computer. Apart from Firefox and Outlook Express, there were no programs running at the time. It said that a process or thread crucial to system operation has unexpectedly exited or been terminated and said I should check to make sure that any new hardware of software was properly installed. The technical information read: *** STOP: 0x000000F4 (0x0000000003, 0x86C31C10, 0x86C31D84, 0x805FA160) and a physical memory dump was completed.

Apart from upgrading my McAfee Virus Utilities and using a new USB pen, I haven’t installed any new hardware of software for a good few months and had never had a similar problem before. I restarted the system and everything seemed to work fine. Soon though, every two or three restarts would produce a similar blue screen of death. Sometimes this screen was the same as the one above and sometimes it said: UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT-VOLUME and the technical information was: *** STOP: 0x000000ED (0x86F9F900, 0xC0000006, 0X00000000, 0x00000000).

When I restarted again, this time an error message appeared just as the desktop background was loading up. It was titled ‘Delayed Write Failed’ and read: ‘Windows was unable to save all the data for the file C:\WINDOWS\Registration. The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere.’ After clicking OK, the same error message repeated itself numerous times but with different files, including:

C:\WINDOWS
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SysEvent.Evt
C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch\
C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch\
C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch\
C:\$Mft

The computer then froze. Now when I restart, the blue screen of death comes up every time before Windows has fully loaded. I’ve tried loading up in Safe Mode so I can run a check of the hard drive for errors, but even in Safe Mode I can’t successfully load up Windows without being hit by the blue screen.

The laptop is a three year old Dell Inspiron 8200 running Windows XP (with SP2). Any help would be fantastic!
Many thanks, Jack

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Dani AI

Generated

The combination of STOP 0xF4, UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME (0xED), repeated "Delayed Write Failed" messages and a reference to C:\$Mft is textbook for NTFS metadata corruption or a failing hard disk (hardware or its controller). and are correct to suspect the drive; the McAfee update and the USB pen are possible triggers but unlikely to be the root cause if the file table is damaged.

Immediate triage (to preserve data)

  • Stop normal boots to avoid more writes.
  • If the data is important, image or copy it before running repair tools. A Linux Live USB (Ubuntu/Knoppix) or connecting the laptop drive to another PC via a USB-to-IDE/SATA adapter makes it possible to copy off Documents and Settings, the user profile, and any important files. Professional imaging (ddrescue/Clonezilla) is recommended when the disk shows read errors.

Targeted repair steps (if data is backed up or not critical)

  • Try Last Known Good Configuration from the F8 menu.
  • If recovery media is available, boot the Windows XP Recovery Console and run a repair pass (example commands): 
chkdsk c: /r
fixboot
fixmbr
  • Run the laptop/motherboard hardware diagnostics (manufacturer boot diagnostics) and a memory test (memtest86+) to rule out controller/RAM faults.

What to expect next

  • If chkdsk reports many bad sectors or cannot finish, the drive is failing and should be replaced and cloned if possible. If the system recovers, follow up with a full surface scan and a clean reinstall from recovery media. Combine these steps with ’s recovery-disc suggestion and consider ’s offer for hands-on help if needed. Caution: repair tools can make recovery harder on a physically failing disk—image first when data matters.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for ShaneMcP

I haven't had the time to read your whole thing now but send me a PM and I'll send you my work email address. I own a small IT company and would love to help!

Member Avatar for dcc

Have you tried using the recovery disc that came with you computer?

Member Avatar for nnobakht

this sounds like a HD issue. it sounds like when it is trying to write to the HD it is timing out too many times and it is unable to write it. Are you connected to a network drive or is it an interal HD?
If it is an internal HD i would say it is the HD conflicting with something and windows files are unable to write. I had the same problem and switching the HD fixed my problem.

On a notebook it could be somewhat expensive to change the HD. Let me know hwo this works out

Member Avatar for MidiMagic

It's probably a hardware error. It could be any of the following:

- Loose connection: card/motherboard socket, disk drive cable, or RAM stick.

- A card or device failed. Don't overlook the keyboard and mouse.

- That USB pen is not correctly installed.

- The hard disk format is corrupted (copy off and reformat).

- Power supply trouble.

- It might be a virus or spyware.

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